Inaccuracy in Academia: Kline Misleads on New Deal UnemploymentTopic: Accuracy in Media

Accuracy in Academia's Malcolm Kline writes in a July 8 Accuracy in Media article:

The unemployment rates at both ends of the New Deal—roughly 20-20—show that Roosevelt’s programs did not work, although they left us with the cycle of deficit spending that even Republican presidents, for the most part, have accepted as a fait accompli.

This is a highly misleading generalization. As we've previouslynoted, unemployment peaked in 1933 at 24.9 percent and had dropped to 14.3 percent in 1937 -- de facto evidence that the New Deal worked. While unemployment increased in 1938 and 1939, many experts believe that it was because Roosevelt cut spending and raised taxes in an effort to reduce the deficit. Further, government statistics at the time did not count those in government work projects as being "employed," even though they technically were.